opposing unnecessary, excessive and intrusive powerline development

REVOLT Newsletter 198

Revolt news 19/10/2005

STOP PRESS: Friday's AGM will be at 7.30 p.m. at Asgard, Sessay. There
is no special business, just the AGM formalities and the usual open forum.
It is expected to be a small and short meeting. The chairman's annual
report is available by email on request.

1. BBC on-line news 25.9.05
reports small networks of power generators in "microgrids" could
transform the electricity network in the way that the net changed
distributed communication. That is one of the conclusions of a Southampton
University project scoping out the feasibility of microgrids for power
generation and distribution. Microgrids are small community networks that
supply electricity and heat.

2. An insightful and technically well
informed paper has been submitted by Derek G Birkett, a retired Grid
Control Engineer, to the Royal Society of Edinburgh inquiry on renewable
energy (news188.1). The paper can be found at http://tinyurl.com/7qf7a

Appendix
C of the Submission, Derek Birkett's letter to 'IEE Review', ends with the
paragraph :- "As a retired grid control engineer my instincts react
against all thought of unpredictable renewable power on the scale
proposed, sloshing around the system. Predictability is the key to secure
grid operation. The Electricity Grid is a dynamic beast and unforgiving,
it is inherently unstable. Wind resource does not provide any governor
response to assist the automatic correction of system frequency
deviations. Its exploitation on any scale would deter the introduction of
new replacement capacity by soaking up available demand, the basis of
payment within a market driven structure. At minimum levels of system
demand with fixed base load operation of nuclear plant, in turbulent
conditions, the control of system frequency would become a
nightmare."

3. News from China of its developing nuclear power
programme suggests large gains in efficiency (APPENDIX 1).

4. The
Highland Council web site http://www.highland.gov.uk
has many papers on the new planning system and renewable energy. There is
a large consultants' report on undergrounding high voltage transmission
lines, with application to Scotland, commissioned in relation to the
Beauly - Denny proposal. There are papers of a Renewable Energy Group and
an emerging Highland Renewable Energy Strategy on which the Council is
aiming to start an 11-week consultation on 28 October, which will include
six public meetings across the Highlands.

5. Delegates at the Ninth
Grove Fuel Cell Symposium in London were told that consumer electronics
offered an obvious route forward. "Consumer electronics will
represent the first major mass market for fuel cells," said George A
panel from SRI Consulting, a chemical industry consultancy. "It is
the beginning of the personal power revolution where people will be able
to divorce themselves from the tyranny of the grid."

6. A
letter (APENDIX 2) from Hambleton branch of CPRE tells how flawed
government windfarm policy is being promoted uncritically through the
planning system. The letter responds to a meeting 7.10.05 called to
present the North Yorkshire Renewable Energy Study findings.

7.
Snips from news@all-energy Issue 56 of October 2005 are at APPENDIX 3.

8.
Former energy minister Brian Wilson has been appointed as chairman of
Airtricity, the Irish wind power company with ambitious plans for wind
farms in Scotland (APPENDIX 4). Already Wilson and his chief executive are
complaining of a planning bottleneck and delays in getting approval in
Scotland. This company has previously proposed a 10 GW wind farm in the
North Sea off the Aberdeen coast. According to the Sunday Herald 16
October Airtricity plans a 16 billion pound North Sea wind facility to
supply Germany and Britain.

9. The situation at Sale,
where Dermot Finnigan has a long-running dispute with National Grid,
raises an important issue which may affect many home owners. A 400 kV
power line is on neighbouring land but the "swing" of the line
(a significant movement in windy conditions) brings it over Dermot's
property where there is no wayleave. There is a dispute over whether the
"still" position of the line trespasses over the boundary but it
seems to be accepted that the "swing" does cross the boundary.
The important point is that there are safety requirements imposed upon the
landowner but no wayleave or apparent power to impose these requirements.
Dermot's letter to the NG Chairman is at APPENDIX 5. A legal precedent,
Laiqat v Majid [2005] 26EG130 (CS), concerning an extractor fan exhaust
from a take-away shop, establishes that even a slight and temporary
intrusion at a height of several metres into space above a property
constitutes a trespass. The judge gave as an example that a developer was
not entitled to swing a crane over an adjoining property. I would be
pleased to hear from any landowners or homeowners with a line on
neighbouring property within a couple of metres of their boundary.

10.
Simon Jenkins in the Guardian 14 October summarises the new planning
system arising from the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 as
government imposing its will through regional planning bodies with an
attitude to local concerns as "you can all get stuffed". The
article "The verbal smokescreen that hides dangerous government"
is mainly about the government's plans for a million new homes in the
south east, but equally well applies to wind farms and power lines. He
says the 2004 Act "forced every community in England to an
unprecedented surrender of control over its physical development to a plan
centrally ordained in Whitehall".

***** *****

APPENDIX 1
Super-efficient nuke reactor set for trial

Oct 5, 2005 - China Daily
Author(s): Fu Jing

Chinese scientists are planning super-efficient
nuclear reactors that can maximize uranium burn-up and minimize waste in
the generation of electricity. If the first experimental reactor, set to
be in operation by 2010, is successfl, the technology could help relieve
China's uranium supply problems as the country accelerates nuclear power
plant construction. China Academy of Atomic Science President Zhao
Zhixiang said a team of scientists has already mapped a detailed plan to
speed up research and utilization of the so-called next-generation fast
reactors. The new reactors are expected to burn 60-70 per cent of their
uranium fuel - a conventional reactor consumes only 0.7 per cent of the
uranium it is fed. "This kind of reactor can greatly improve the
efficiency of fuel burn- up, and we are trying our best to put the
experimental reactor into use over the next five years," Zhao said.
Current reactors are only able to harness the power of 0.7 per cent of the
radioactive isotopes found in natural uranium. In the fast reactor, the
process is optimized so that more of the previously untapped isotopes can
be used to generate electricity, burning-up fuel at least 60 times more
efficiently than in a normal reactor. "We will have no concerns over
fuel supply if such reactors are used to generate electricity
commercially," Zhao said. China started research into fast nuclear
reactor technology in 1995 and invested 1.38 billion yuan (US$170.2
million) into the construction of the experimental reactor. "I hope
an experimental reactor with a capacity of 200,000 kilowatts can be put
into use by 2010," Zhao said. He added that construction of the
reactor is close to completion but did not identify the site of the
project under the High and New T echnology Research and Development
Programme of the Chinese Government. He also said plans for a fast-reactor
prototype are expected to be included in the country's medium- and
long-term science and technology development blueprints. The prototype
reactor, with a capacity of 600,000 kilowatts, will be constructed and put
into operation by 2020, Zhao said, adding: "After that, we will
consider commercial operation of the reactor." As China's economy
keeps developing rapidly, demand for power also keeps increasing. To meet
its growing energy demands, China has mapped out a national plan to
increase nuclear generating capacity to 36,000 megawatts by 2020, up from
8,700 megawatts today. The proportion of national power output supplied by
nuclear energy is expected to rise from 2.3 per cent now to 4 per cent. A
senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission told
China Daily that the country will have an even more ambitious plan to
generate nuclear power after 2020. "All the plans urged our
researchers to develop our own core technologies for the reactors,"
said the official, who declined to be named. "And I personally
believe the fast reactor will play a leading role during the 2040-50
period in China's nuclear plant construction." Apart from fast
reactor research, China has also made a breakthrough in gas-cooled nuclear
reactors, which can generate considerably higher temperatures than
conventional nuclear reactors, leading to a high power generating
capacity. Using helium as a coolant, the reactor, mainly developed by
researchers from Tsinghua University, is also able to shut down and cool
automatically in an emergency. Senior State Council officials have called
for early commercial application of China's first gas- cooled nuclear
reactor to help restructure China's energy supply strategy. Most of the
nuclear reactors currently in operation in China rely on technology
imported from France and Russia.

***** *****

APPENDIX 2
Extracts from a letter written by Hambleton CPRE following a NYCC
conference on Renewable energy, Friday 7th October.

We were grateful
for the opportunity to attend this conference which was well organised and
had an interesting group of speakers, but left it with a feeling of deep
dread.

The Government has delegated the policy of energy production
largely to Local Authorities who, in the words of the AERE, are largely
ill equipped to deal with it having no experience and no technical
expertise record in the area. Most Authorities are therefore tackling the
problem with the aid of consultants. So far, so good, but Authorities may
not have the expertise to defeat the consultants when the latter's reports
are inadequate.

This was vividly demonstrated on Friday. The main
report failed to state that the over-riding objective was the supply of
reliable, economic energy. When questioned the platform said that this was
the Government responsibility, the report merely actioned policy. The
report had main objectives "To ensure that no Household paid more
than 10% of its income for energy" and also that North Yorkshire
should ensure that 10% of an arbitrary target should come from renewables.

Such
objectives demand that reports should attempt to demonstrate that the
approach proposed would meet them, yet those presented failed to do so.
There were two main failures:-

There was no economic analysis
whatever so no attempt to demonstrate the target of requiring household
expenditure to be less than 10% for energy would be met. The target
proposed was expressed in terms of installed generating capacity. Since
most renewable generation is intermittent what happens when it is not
operational? There was not even any attempt to show what the effective
output of the capacity installed would be.

As you know our members
include those who have been employed for many years alongside and inside
the energy industry and latterly by Banks and Investment houses to
validate consultant reports. We would have no hesitation in rejecting the
some of the reports as inadequate on the above grounds alone.

We
were also disturbed by some other aspects of the talks.. A wide range of
renewable resource possibilities was mentioned, again without economic or
effective capacity analysis thereby, in our judgement, giving a very
distorted picture of the possible gains. One example will suffice:-

Mention
was made of fastening wind generators to the roofs of houses. This is
possible, but the generators are very small - so small that the
manufacturers claim they are suitable for battery charging and in many
cases they are not even capable of generating mains voltages.
Manufacturers state that to provide the electricity for a three bedroom
house a turbine with a blade diameter of 5.5m mounted on a pole giving a
total height of 49ft and a cost of about £20k would be required. Despite
a subsidy of about 50% such a piece of kit would be uneconomic - and very
difficult to put in most gardens! Clearly smaller units could produce
power but they are even less economic and do little to help meet the
Government targets.

We believe it is absolutely essential that
speakers in conferences should be required to show, with their proposals
and examples, the economic and effective capacity outcomes.

The
platform response to our criticism was, we felt, disingenuous. It is never
sufficient to say we were doing what the Government asked if, in their
opinion, the policy is wrong. The report should say something to the
effect. "This is what the Government has asked us to do and the
results will be such that it does not result in the targets being
met".

Our own position is that the fundamental flaws in
Government policy are

The disposition of renewable targets should be
based on an analysis of those areas where it is technically possible to
meet them, not on some basis of former generating capacity or usage. The
targets should be based on effective capacity not installed capacity The
targets may accept that subsidy is required for initiation but not for
substantial follow up or operation. If subsidy is required in perpetuity
then the costs will be too great for the economy to bear and quite
certainly the 10% maximum per household will collapse. In delegating the
renewables element to Local/Regional Authorities the Government is
presumably retaining the provision of base load capacity to itself. How
can the two be melded? It is surely unwise to go ahead with the two
aspects in isolation?

Whilst we all try and implement the Government
policy without demonstrating and protesting about the inadequacies, the
policy will remain unaltered and we will waste money and store up trouble
for the future.

We have written to to set out our feelings about the
conference. We would be grateful if you could direct us towards the best
way of making our feelings known and to assist in a more rigorous
approach.

***** *****

APPENDIX 3. Snips from news@all-energy
Issue 56, Oct 2005.

1.14.Highlands forges ahead

"In the
absence of clear guidance from the Scottish Executive, we have taken a
lead in Scotland in dedicating the time, effort and resources towards
framing a comprehensive renewable energy policy for the Highlands" -
Highland Council's Planning chairman Sandy Park on publication of the
draft Highland Renewable Energy Strategy and Planning Guidelines. http://www.thisisnorthscotland.co.uk/
(long web address given)

The government's plans to encourage
millions of UK households to generate their own electricity must be backed
up with effective policy...... research released by academics shows
consumers face a number of cost-prohibitive obstacles http://tinyurl.com/cyt2l

3.2.Beauly
to Denny pylon route

The impact of plans to build a 137-mile power
transmission line of huge pylons from the Highlands is to be considered by
Scottish Natural Heritage

Trident Energy has successfully completed
testing a scale wave energy converter at NaREC. Extrapolating the results
to full scale indicates a generating capacity per point absorber of
approximately 100KW in good sea conditions. From this, a wave farm
occupying just 5 hectares will be capable of supplying 100MW

Manchester, famous for bobbins in
the cotton era, has now invented the "bobber" - an electricity
generator which uses rising and falling floats to create power. Tests at
Manchester University suggest the device could outperform windfarms by
harnessing the motion of waves http://tinyurl.com/74j2y
and http://tinyurl.com/9bh8k

8.1.Unst
hydrogen scheme hailed a success

The backers of Europe's first
community-owned hydrogen production facility have claimed to be close to
making the project viable. The scheme on Unst uses wind power to supply
storage heaters, with the rest of the energy producing hydrogen from water
http://tinyurl.com/cggqo

He blamed a failure to provide adequate planning
resources to meet the demand, created by the Executive's 2003 target of 40
per cent renewable energy by 2020, which has resulted, he said, in the
"creation of a bottleneck as well as a policy".

Speaking
on his appointment as UK chairman of the Irish wind energy company
Airtricity, the former Cunninghame North MP, said: "It has been
pretty obvious for several years now that renewable energy would make
substantial additional demands on the planning system in Scotland as a
result of a policy promoted by the Executive.

"It would be
interesting to know how many officials had been delegated to deal with
this self-made issue.

"It is as true in Whitehall as it is in
Scotland. It's an obvious example of where joined up government would
help. They created a policy but they also created a bottleneck."

Wilson's
remarks were echoed by Airtricity's chief executive, Eddie O'Connor, who
said: "The Scottish planning regime is not very business-friendly.

"The
targets and the ROC [renewable obligation certificates] scheme may be in
place, but when the rubber meets the road, it took 25 months to get
planning permission to develop our site at the Braes of Doune, for
instance. In Ireland you know within nine months if you can go
ahead."

Airtricity, which has spent £10 million developing
windfarm plans in Scotland, including an established site at Ardrossan,
said that it had employed Wilson to oversee ambitious future strategy and
investment plans.

On Wilson's appointment, O'Connor added: "Our
customer is the government, so he can help us not just at Westminster but
in Scotland, where a huge amount of development is going to happen."

Airtricity,
which has extensive windfarm developments in the US, as well as Ireland
and Scotland, last year made a pre tax profit of £13m on a turnover of
£86m.

You have sent me two pages of safety
information and 11 reference documents relating to health and safety
issues and overhead power lines appertaining to my land.

Would you
please confirm that this information has been issued to all residential
properties that fall with the same safety limit of 5. 3 meters that
applies to your lines in swing in the UK, Europe and the USA.

It is
extraordinary to see the full extent of the requirements, regulations,
guidance notes, restrictions your line has imposed on my property without
consent.

Would you please as a matter of urgency dispatch a director
of your organisation to my home to mark out the extent of the safety
limit.